Tony Blair Says Iraq War Helped Give Rise to ISIS
Source: New York Times
LONDON Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, suggested on Sunday that the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which removed Saddam Hussein from power, helped give rise to the Islamic State, even as he said it was hard to apologize for removing Saddam.
Mr. Blair, whose decision to involve Britain in the military mission made him deeply unpopular at home, told CNN that there are elements of truth to the view that the war in Iraq helped pave the way for the Islamic State.
The militant group emerged as an offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which fought the American presence there, before separating from the organization. It now controls vast swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, and is also known as ISIS or ISIL.
Of course, you cant say those of us who removed Saddam in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015, Mr. Blair said in an interview with Fareed Zakaria broadcast on Sunday. But its important also to realize, one, that the Arab Spring which began in 2011 would also have had its impact on Iraq today, and two, ISIS actually came to prominence from a base in Syria and not in Iraq.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/world/europe/tony-blair-says-iraq-war-helped-give-rise-to-isis.html?_r=0
brucefan
(1,549 posts)Botany
(70,490 posts)Tony Blair along with George W Bush and Dick Cheney started ISIS will be on your headstone.
Remember in 2003 when France warned us that if we started a war in Iraq then the
"blowback" from such actions would be nasty?
TexasProgresive
(12,157 posts)The policy of ostracizing all the medium and low level public servants because they were Baathists lead to a totally destabilized Iraq. The people as well as the NCOs of the armed forces were people that needed to be brought on board, but hey bUSH and company were only interested in moving control from Sunni to Shia.
The whole thing was a S.N.A.F.U. from the pre-invasion to the present.
Botany
(70,490 posts)..... my pick up under I 71 and he said something like the following (loose quote)
"We can be in Baghdad in under 1 week and that will be when I troubles will start.
Iraq has 105 different sides and they all hate each other. How are we going to governor
that?"
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,500 posts)Iggo
(47,549 posts):middlefinger:
LiberalLovinLug
(14,173 posts)But then excused it because hey, the park would have gone to crap anyways. And besides there's always someone else in future that will come and clean up the mess I helped make.
sinkingfeeling
(51,445 posts)Orsino
(37,428 posts)...and give them a piece of his mind. Since there aren't any pieces of his soul left.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Nobody forgot, nobody is ever going to forgive you either. That stain never washes off Tony, you creepy shithead...you need to stand trial for war crimes.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)McKim
(2,412 posts)So glad that Tony can't really go out in public anymore, the anger is palpable everywhere. If this nasty little man had not supported Bush, we might have a better world. Words cannot describe the contempt I have for this man.
TexasProgresive
(12,157 posts)But do you think we would have liberty muffins for breakfast? (I know they're not English)